Value in the Commons (was: The Emergence of a Global Public Commons: Internet and Usenet:)
Cameron Laird (claird@Starbase.NeoSoft.COM)
16 Oct 1996 14:20:15 -0500
In article <541ve8$gcl@panix2.panix.com>, Edward Green <erg@panix.com> wrote:
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>Obviously the net is being overwhelmed by Gresham's Law. It's also like a
>street where lots of people have been throwing garbage. Confronted with a
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>Am I too cynical?
No. In fact, you honor Michael's metaphor of a
Commons by showing that it works in more than one
dimension: not only is it available to all for
"free speech", but it also exhibits the character-
istic dynamics--overuse, degraded quality,
conflicting mores, and "trashiness"--of the
histories of commons.
Incidentally, has everyone read
Thompson, Michael
1979 Rubbish theory: the creation and
destruction of value; with a fore-
word by E.C. Zeeman. Oxford
University Press, Oxford and New
York
? I recommend it. Thompson has a strong under-
standing of the application of his ideas to novel
media and other resources; another of his books
expounds his "institutional theory of environmental
perception and a strategic framework for the
sustainable development of the Himalaya," for
example.
--
Cameron Laird http://starbase.neosoft.com/~claird/home.html
claird@NeoSoft.com +1 713 623 8000 #227
+1 713 996 8546 FAX
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